BACKGROUND: Depression, as one of the most disabling diseases around the world, had caught the global concern with its rising prevalence rate. There is a growing need of detecting depression, particularly in the old age population which is often left being overlooked.
METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional community-based study which included 150 Chinese elderly aged 60 and above within Klang Valley area. We obtained the sociodemographic profiles and assessed the status of well-being, depression, and cognitive function of the participants with the help of instruments: WHO Five-Item Well-Being Index, Major (ICD-10) Depression Inventory, and 6-Item Cognitive Impairment Test.
RESULTS: We found that the prevalence of depression among the Chinese elderly within Klang Valley region was 10.7%. With multiple logistic regression, decision to consult doctor on depressed mood or memory problem and presence of cognitive impairment were shown to be significantly associated with unipolar major depression, whereas wellbeing status was also found to be statistically correlated with depression in univariate analysis.
CONCLUSION: The prevalence of unipolar depression among Chinese elderly within Klang Valley, Malaysia presented that there was an increased trend compared to the previous studies..
Chloroquine (CQ) and mefloquine (MQ) are no longer potent antimalarial drugs due to the emergence of resistant Plasmodium falciparum. Combination therapy has become the standard for many regimes in overcoming drug resistance. Roxithromycin (ROM), a known p-glycoprotein inhibitor, is reported to have antimalarial activity and it is hoped it will potentiate the effects of both CQ/MQ and reverse CQ/MQ-resistance. We assayed the effects of CQ and MQ individually and in combination with ROM on synchronized P. falciparum (Dd2 strain) cultures. The IC(50) values of CQ and MQ were 60.0+/-5.0 and 16.0+/-3.0 ng/ml; these were decreased substantially when combined with ROM. Isobolograms indicate that CQ-ROM combinations were relatively more synergistic (mean FICI 0.70) than MQ-ROM (mean FICI 0.85) with their synergistic effect at par with CQ-verapamil (VRP) (mean FICI 0.64) and MQ-VRP (mean FICI 0.60) combinations. We conclude that ROM potentiates the CQ/MQ response on multidrug-resistant P. falciparum.
Fluoxetine (FLX), a P-glycoprotein inhibitor with antimalarial activity, is promising candidate for reversing chloroquine/mefloquine (CQ/MQ) resistance. The Dd2 strain of CQ- and MQ-resistant Plasmodium falciparum was synchronized and assayed with various concentrations of CQ/MQ individually and in combination with FLX or verapamil (VPL). Our results indicated the 50% inhibitory concentration values of CQ and MQ were greatly lowered when FLX was used simultaneously. Isobolograms indicated that CQ-FLX combinations are more synergistic (mean fractional inhibitory concentration [FIC] index 0.55) than MQ-FLX (mean FIC index 0.64), and their synergistic effect was better than or at par with CQ-VPL (mean FIC index 0.88) and MQ-VPL (mean FIC index 0.60) combinations. We conclude that the FLX potentiates the CQ and MQ response on multidrug-resistant P. falciparum at clinically achievable concentrations.